Culture

Book: ‘Bridges: The Science and Art of the World’s Most Inspiring Structures’

London bridges would truly fall down without an engineer's art and craft.

From the London Tower and its phenomenal aesthetics to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington and its
sensational failures, bridges have fascinated onlookers for centuries. They serve as cultural connectors, allowing people to express deep emotions (as with significant anniversaries), as well as engineering feats (that sometimes cause tragedies from unwanted collapses and destructions). In
Bridges: The Science and Art of the World’s Most Inspiring Structures, David Blockley, an emeritus professor at the University of Bristol, England, and the former president of the Institution of Structural Engineering, first defines the elements of a bridge—beam, arch, truss, and suspension. He then uses these elements to put together his thesis that bridge building is as much of an art as it is an engineering skill. Each bridge element comes together to form a whole, he says, much like how the words in these sentences combine to form an idea. And just as writing must be correctly arranged to carry its message, bridge forms must be constructed well to deliver the necessary functions, and most importantly, to ensure safety. Bridge builders are able to figure out the cause and the cure of hidden and unexpected defects based on their engineering capabilities, their understanding of the bridge elements that make up the art. Without those elements, the
infamous wobbling London Millennium Bridge really could have fallen down. • $29.95; Oxford University Press, June 2012